


On the Cutting Room Floor

by AccioInvisibilityCloak



Category: Nothing Much to Do
Genre: F/M, im so sorry, missing moment fic, some strong language, yet another version of this scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-13
Updated: 2014-09-13
Packaged: 2018-02-17 04:34:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,645
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2296844
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AccioInvisibilityCloak/pseuds/AccioInvisibilityCloak
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In any vlog, there’s always something that ends up on the figurative cutting room floor. This is a short fic about what exactly Ben and Bea cut from “Words”. Because I have no business writing another one of these scenes, but this idea wouldn’t go away, so I wrote it anyway. Warnings for language as usual.</p>
            </blockquote>





	On the Cutting Room Floor

“Sincerely, Beatrice Duke!” she shouts at the camera, at Claudio, and it does feel great to get angry again. “FUCK YOU!” she screams one last time, and flops backwards onto the bed, exhausted but still fired up. “God, that felt good.”

Beatrice presses the heels of her hands against her eyes, blocking out the overhead light, and tries not to think about how comfortable Ben’s bed is. She wonders if he would mind if she just stayed in it forever instead of going back to that house, where no Duke is speaking to either of the others, where everything reminds her of that _fuckface_ breaking her cousin’s heart and leaving her drawn and silent when she should be vibrant and happy and carefree.

When Bea takes her hands away from her face, it’s to see Ben still gazing down at her, the tiniest smile causing one side of his mouth to quirk up in the most adorable way, and she doesn’t even try to stop herself thinking it this time, just smiles sadly back.

“That was amazing,” he says with a tentative laugh. “You are my favorite person in the whole world, Beatrice.”

“Yeah, sure,” she scoffs, rolling her eyes.

“No, I mean it,” he admits. “There’s no one I care about more than you, Bea. It just… took me a while to realize, but I do, and I know we haven’t always been-”

She sits up, flushing bright red, because there is no way they’re having this conversation while she’s lying in his bed. “Forget it.”

“What?”

“Forget about everything else, okay? I don’t want to talk about that summer, I don’t want to think about any of it because I don’t have the energy to be mad at you right now. I don’t know what I would have done the last two weeks without you…” she trails off, looking down at her hands suddenly clenched together in her lap. Even after everything that’s happened between them the last few days, she’s still bracing herself against the truth.

She lets go.

“I care about you, too, Ben. A lot. Being here, with you… this is the only place I don’t feel lost anymore, but how can I sit here and enjoy that? How can I sit here and smile at your awful jokes and drink your tea and feel… not lost, when Hero’s… you know. How can I do that to her? I shouldn’t be happy right now, I shouldn’t be-”

“You can feel more than one thing at a time, Bea. You can be there for Hero without making yourself miserable too. And you are there for her, you’re helping. We’re doing something now, right?” he gestures to the camera.

And he’s looking at her and she can see it on his face, the same adoration she pretended not to notice in his eyes the other day, after their confrontation with Leo, and how can she have been so blind? She feels it too, so much that she can’t ignore it anymore.

“I shouldn’t be happy,” she murmurs, “and yet…”

And when she finally, finally, finally leans in to kiss him, it doesn’t feel strange at all.

There are tears in her eyes as their lips meet, and she blinks them away and tries to make this simple touch say what words still cannot, and she sinks into the kiss, into the sensation of being so close to him. She lets herself feel it, this incredible, confusing rush of emotion she’s been fighting against for weeks, months even. Years, really, and she’s still sort of terrified, still not ready to trust this again, but for the first time in days she doesn’t feel sad or angry at all. She lets herself be happy again, just for a little while.

Ben’s hand cups her cheek, and he responds to the kiss with the eager surprise of someone who, like her, has been trying not to hope, and it feels like forever but it’s only a moment later when they break apart.

“Now I really wish I had a time-turner,” he breathes, grinning that stupid adorable grin of his.

“Oh? And why is that?” Beatrice asks.

“Well, the girl of my dreams just finally kissed me, and it turns out she doesn’t hate me after all. I want to relive this moment forever.”

“You don’t need a time-turner for that,” she smiles, and brings her lips to his once more.

(They’ll just have to cut this bit out of the video later.)

                                                                                                                                         ***

Beatrice leaves hurriedly a while later, flushed and giddy and more conflicted than ever. She barely says goodbye to Benedick, just rushes out with a hurried, “Got to run, Leo’ll be home soon.” Ben looks a little hurt, but he doesn’t say anything, just gives her space and time and texts her when the video goes up later that evening.

When she gets the text, she’s in her room, her camera on again, so she doesn’t reply right away. Instead, she’s pouring her heart out the only way she can. It turns out Hero and Leo are at a doctor’s appointment, so they won’t overhear. Anyway, she can’t burden Hero with this secret, not now, and there’s no way she would ever deign to speak to Mr. Misogynist Bastard about anything, much less her sudden… feelings. All of her friends have stopped talking to one another for a lot of reasons, and she couldn’t go to them even if they weren’t being horrible, they would only tease her.

The only person she really wants to talk to is Ben, but that’s out of the question, because he’s the one who has her head spinning like this in the first place. So she turns to the videos, hoping that just pretending there’s someone listening will be enough.

“Hey, everyone. I know I haven’t been posting much lately, but a lot has happened, and I’m really not in the best place right now. Do you ever… do you ever think something is so horrible that there’s no way it will ever really get better? But then when you least expect it, something good happens, and you feel awful for not feeling so awful anymore and you’re not sure what you want at all and you might be completely hypocritical just for feeling this way?”

“I guess… what I’m saying is, these past weeks, since Hero’s party, they’ve been… they’ve been hell, actually, absolute _hell_ , and I think I would have exploded from the pressure and the lies and just everything. Except I didn’t. Because of Benedick.

Benedick! Remember, the Dickface Extraordinaire? Maybe… maybe I was a bit too harsh with all the insults. But I just can’t believe how much he’s changed! He’s like this wise, sweet, funny guy who isn’t awful at all, and I don’t know when that happened, you know? How could I not have seen it?

He actually stood up for her. He was on Hero’s side from the beginning, on my side. He helped me calm her down, after… everything. He freaking cleaned our house after the party mess! I came downstairs and he was just straightening up the kitchen, and then he just… stayed. He stayed, and he’s the only thing in my life that feels right anymore. Every time I’ve smiled in the past two weeks is because of Ben. I’ve been round to his house so much that I’ve started drinking tea again, and I don’t know why I was so mean to him about it before because it’s just so _comforting_. And he made the new vlog that you guys are probably watching, and he helped me vent about everything and agreed to back me up when I _destroy_ Claudio, and-”

That’s when her phone buzzes, cutting her off. Bea looks down at Benedick’s name on the screen and feels a little thrill of excitement, even though it’s just an update about the new vlog going up.

“And he’s just texted me, and there is _no good reason_ why that should make me feel all warm and fuzzy! I’m not this person, I don’t get all dreamy over people, this isn’t what I wanted, or expected, or planned for! Why is it that even though there’s so many more important things to worry about, even though I have no right to be so happy, all I want to do is kiss him again?

Oh, God, Hero and the girls were right all along. Today he told me I’m his favorite person in the world. Me! And I- I don’t understand it, but somehow I think I feel the same way about him. I think… maybe I have for a while now.

Ben, it hasn’t always been easy between us, and I’m sorry, for everything. I can’t tell you what you mean to me, what the last two weeks have meant- I just don’t have the words.

“Oh, my God,” Beatrice breathes, shaking her head in disbelief. “I’m in love. I’m falling in love with Benedick!”

“...I’m editing this out. In fact, I’m throwing the entire video away! Forget I ever said anything!”

She hits the End Record button with such force that the camera falls to the floor. Beatrice doesn’t bother picking it back up. Instead, she crawls into bed and tries to turn her mind off and fall asleep. All she can think of is Ben, and that kiss, the kiss that she instigated, because oh my god, she’s in love. And she’s lying there in the dark and panicking all over again, because suddenly the thought of loving him isn’t so scary at all.

(Bea forgets to delete the footage she just filmed. A few weeks later, it comes back to haunt her. For now, though, the memory of this afternoon is enough of a ghost to keep her wondering, late into the night.)

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: I’d been wondering about when the love confession happened, and what they’d do with the “nothing in the world” line, and also about the theory that the love letters at the end will just be Team Blessed’s vlogs about each other, and how we still don’t have a vlog of Beatrice admitting her feelings to herself/the camera that Hero can show to Ben. And this ficlet is the result of my wondering.This isn’t actually my headcanon of the timeline anymore, i think the “nothing in the world” conversation probably happened right after “Idiots” and before “Words” actually, but for some reason, this fic felt like it needed to start after “Words” instead. I know it’s probably really cheesy and cliched and it might be somewhat OOC, but I’m actually kind of fond of this fic, so I’m posting it. Hope you like it, and thank you for reading! :)
> 
> Please do not copy/duplicate this work.


End file.
